Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Thanks for posting this in OT @FD1000. It cuts both ways. FOX of course was successfully sued for asserting that the ‘20 election was rigged when they knew better. We’re a very open-minded bunch over in OT. Enjoy all points of view when presented civilly. Room for all sides.
I have mixed feelings about George Stephanopoulos. Excellent speaker/ smooth easy delivery. Likable persona. Bright. I enjoy him. But I’ve long felt his show was slanted to the liberal side. Unfortunately, slanted coverage seems to be the lay-of-the-land nowadays. Not much left on TV that isn’t.
Wikipedia - George Stephanopoulos ”Before his career as a journalist, Stephanopoulos was an advisor to the Democratic Party. He rose to early prominence as a communications director for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and subsequently became White House communications director. He was later senior advisor for policy and strategy, before departing in December 1996.”
"I have mixed feelings about George Stephanopoulos. Excellent speaker/ smooth easy delivery. Likable persona. Bright. I enjoy him. But I’ve long felt his show was slanted to the liberal side."
Lawsuit against the pollster and Des Moines Register fits with the ABC/Stephanopoulos case. The Orange Scum is deliberately intimidating the media. This is fascist behavior.
I don't know all the details regarding the ABC/Stephanopoulos lawsuit. Based on the merits of the case, some were surprised that ABC (Disney?) settled so quickly.
As Crash stated, the incoming president is now deliberately trying to intimidate the media. Let's hope the fourth estate does not succumb to these fascist tactics. Timely, accurate information will be vital for our democracy in the forthcoming years.
First and foremost, the authors of Project 2025 believe that media access to the administration is a privilege rather than a right. This protectionist view is established early in the Mandate: “No legal entitlement exists for the provision of permanent space for media on the White House campus, and the next administration should reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises” (29). It’s hard to believe that this vision will not ripple across the rest of the administration. A journalist’s critical role is that of a watchdog who documents government activities and accesses public information. Any effort to restrict these actions undermines democratic principles.
Muting the Voice of America
Chapter 8 of the Mandate is titled “Media Agencies” and specifically targets free, reliable, public news sources. The advisors who drafted Project 2025 want to reign in Voice of America (VOA), which, since the Cold War, has provided people around the world with accurate and timely news and information. While VOA is funded by Congress, it operates independently, which means it often reports critically on US policies. Consistent with an overall policy of reducing support for international democracy, chapter 8 of the Mandate proposes that VOA and other Congressionally funded US media be consolidated, reduced, and brought more formally under control of the State Department (243–244).
Eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Also within chapter 8 (246–248), Project 2025 calls for defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which channels resources allocated by Congress to PBS and NPR stations around the country, many of which reach underserved communities. Defunding the CPB has been a long-standing goal of the conservative movement (246). According to Project 2025, “Cutting off the CPB is logistically easy. . . . The 47th president can just tell the Congress that he will not sign an appropriations spending bill that contains a penny for the CPB” (247).
A Triple Threat for Media Freedom
It’s hard to say how personally committed Trump is to any of these goals, but his animus toward the media is well established and could shape his behavior in a second term. In his first term as president, Trump pushed the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate journalists who published leaked information. Such retaliatory tactics could occur again during a second term. Project 2025 proposes to remove limits on retaliation by eliminating protections for civil servants thereby allowing the president to appoint loyalists to head agencies that have traditionally been nonpartisan. A president valuing personal loyalty over professional competence would no longer face any institutional resistance.
The frightening aspect of this for me is that there are loyalist/fanatics who have been preparing a take-over of key agencies for several years. They are hitting the ground running, something that they were unprepared to do in 2017. Appointing detractors of an agency’s mission is a way of fatally weakening the institution the better to take it over. Kari Lake at VOA is but one example of foxes being given the keys to the hencoops. A look at proposed appointments in Energy, EPA, IRS, etc., reveals people who likely will try to run these agencies into the ground. For example, the IRS, already weakened by the first Trump administration, now audits only 3% of tax payers who have huge estates they are trying to pass on tax-free or nearly so. In the past the IRS had the resources to audit some 20% of such returns filed by high-net worth people. I personally don’t want my Department of Energy run by some nutty wildcatter ex-gas company executive, but I fear that my voice will be ignored.
ABC and CBS are bowing to Trump for political purposes, and it sends a HORRIBLE message. The $15M settlement is nothing. He is trying to control the news outlets - that is the plan.
The MSM is becoming compromised. Orange is winning his war on the media. This scares the heck out of me.
Is Project 2025 a Roadmap for Media Repression? Heck yeah it is. News will go from leaning left to leaning Trump. It's already happening.
You can add the Washington Post to that list. Owned by Jeff Bezos, who has large economic ties to the federal government, the Post is in the process of slow-motion disintegration even as we watch.
Right, @Old_Joe, and that's what I hope happens too, @Mark. Jennifer Rubin had a post praising ProPublica recently (my 'scrip ran out a week ago and I didn't renew). Made me think she might have a CV or two out there already.
Finally, the media is going to report more of the facts instead of the Dem agenda. My Lib SIL was so proud he bought a Tesla; now he says he will never buy it again. I told him he should change all his Apple devices to Android, because Tim Cook is comprpmised too. Wait, the CEO of Google also talked with Trump and is compromised. He should also stop using anything Meta and MSFT (https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5032533-trump-silicon-valley-ceos/)
Again, the Kool-Aid wino shows up to throw a grenade. He created his own Kool-Aid reality and was able to illuminate himself by it. ...Richard Brautigan, "Trout Fishing In America."
2025 MAGA slogan: "All the ALTERNATIVE FACTS that are fit to print." Throw in a bunch of wild conspiracy theories for good measure. Censor the left, and any naysayers.
And let's see how those Tariffs pan out.
When you line a cabinet and White House with convicts, can you really lower the bar any further? Stay tuned, sportsfans.
Comments
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjg2n3xv7zo
I have mixed feelings about George Stephanopoulos. Excellent speaker/ smooth easy delivery. Likable persona. Bright. I enjoy him. But I’ve long felt his show was slanted to the liberal side. Unfortunately, slanted coverage seems to be the lay-of-the-land nowadays. Not much left on TV that isn’t.
Wikipedia - George Stephanopoulos ”Before his career as a journalist, Stephanopoulos was an advisor to the Democratic Party. He rose to early prominence as a communications director for the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and subsequently became White House communications director. He was later senior advisor for policy and strategy, before departing in December 1996.”
Seems like a fair evaluation to me also.
Based on the merits of the case, some were surprised that ABC (Disney?) settled so quickly.
As Crash stated, the incoming president is now deliberately trying to intimidate the media.
Let's hope the fourth estate does not succumb to these fascist tactics.
Timely, accurate information will be vital for our democracy in the forthcoming years.
https://kettering.org/is-project-2025-a-roadmap-for-media-repression/
Project 2025’s Vision for the Media
First and foremost, the authors of Project 2025 believe that media access to the administration is a privilege rather than a right. This protectionist view is established early in the Mandate: “No legal entitlement exists for the provision of permanent space for media on the White House campus, and the next administration should reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises” (29). It’s hard to believe that this vision will not ripple across the rest of the administration. A journalist’s critical role is that of a watchdog who documents government activities and accesses public information. Any effort to restrict these actions undermines democratic principles.
Muting the Voice of America
Chapter 8 of the Mandate is titled “Media Agencies” and specifically targets free, reliable, public news sources. The advisors who drafted Project 2025 want to reign in Voice of America (VOA), which, since the Cold War, has provided people around the world with accurate and timely news and information. While VOA is funded by Congress, it operates independently, which means it often reports critically on US policies. Consistent with an overall policy of reducing support for international democracy, chapter 8 of the Mandate proposes that VOA and other Congressionally funded US media be consolidated, reduced, and brought more formally under control of the State Department (243–244).
Eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Also within chapter 8 (246–248), Project 2025 calls for defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which channels resources allocated by Congress to PBS and NPR stations around the country, many of which reach underserved communities. Defunding the CPB has been a long-standing goal of the conservative movement (246). According to Project 2025, “Cutting off the CPB is logistically easy. . . . The 47th president can just tell the Congress that he will not sign an appropriations spending bill that contains a penny for the CPB” (247).
A Triple Threat for Media Freedom
It’s hard to say how personally committed Trump is to any of these goals, but his animus toward the media is well established and could shape his behavior in a second term. In his first term as president, Trump pushed the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate journalists who published leaked information. Such retaliatory tactics could occur again during a second term. Project 2025 proposes to remove limits on retaliation by eliminating protections for civil servants thereby allowing the president to appoint loyalists to head agencies that have traditionally been nonpartisan. A president valuing personal loyalty over professional competence would no longer face any institutional resistance.
Can anyone guess which finger I'm holding up?
The MSM is becoming compromised. Orange is winning his war on the media. This scares the heck out of me.
Is Project 2025 a Roadmap for Media Repression? Heck yeah it is. News will go from leaning left to leaning Trump. It's already happening.
I wish they would all resign or walkout en masse. Followed by MacKenzie Scott hiring all of them under the banner of "Alt WaPo"
My Lib SIL was so proud he bought a Tesla; now he says he will never buy it again.
I told him he should change all his Apple devices to Android, because Tim Cook is comprpmised too.
Wait, the CEO of Google also talked with Trump and is compromised.
He should also stop using anything Meta and MSFT
(https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5032533-trump-silicon-valley-ceos/)
My SIL looked at me and smiled; I got him.
He created his own Kool-Aid reality and was able to illuminate
himself by it. ...Richard Brautigan, "Trout Fishing In America."
And let's see how those Tariffs pan out.
When you line a cabinet and White House with convicts, can you really lower the bar any further? Stay tuned, sportsfans.
I would wager "full-blown laugh", but not "with him".